why did my 4 day old baby chick die? so sad!!

i am new to this chicken business so imagine my distress when i had my baby chicken die! it was a barred rock variety. it was fine the day before with her four other sisters then when i came home this morning i noticed it was lethargic, could barely stand and seemed wobbly on its feet. i cleaned its butt just to be sure but didnt see any blockage. i didnt notice any unusual pooping patterns. i gave it some sugar water per the stores advice but it didnt turn out well! i think i gave it flash pulmonary edema!! too much water! how sad! so far the other four sisters are thriving well but is this something that will happen out of the blue? i bought all the proper supplies as instructed, heat lamp, pine shavings, baby chicken food as needed for new hatchlings, and lots of room. i hadnt handled them much because i was told it could cause stress so i just cooed at them and talked so they could get use to my voice. im upset that this baby chick died because she actually seemed to be the stronger of the group--i saw her being the top of the crop pecker pesterer--and now shes gone. did i do something wrong? the store i got them from stated they were immunized against the cocci disease. what could i have done differently? im feeling so guilty! im a nurse by profession and let me tell you doing chest compressions on a baby chick is not effective! what should i have done to help save her? any advice would help! thank you!

I'm so sorry. As one nurse to another, there is nothing you did wrong or could have done differently; these things just happen sometimes. It doesn't sound like the chick had any symptoms of a communicable disease, so it was probably just an unfortunate, isolated fluke. By the way, I've attempted CPR on a duck, and that doesn't work so well either:( !

thank you for the words of support seahen! it sure feels sad but i will do my best to be dilegent with the rest of my flock! i am thankful for this forum due to me being a chicken virgin i need all the advice i can get!! im sure there will be more questions from me to come!! lol thanks again

Sorry about your baby chickie. I don't know what it could have been. Probably a defect of some sort.

Roosters!... RUN!!!!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chicken podiatry (foot and leg problems) and more atwww.PoultryPedia.com created by BYC member SpeckledHills!

Roosters!... RUN!!!!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chicken podiatry (foot and leg problems) and more atwww.PoultryPedia.com created by BYC member SpeckledHills!